Show Recap: The Apprentice 2 - Episode 1 RecapPosted by: Zinc on Sep 10, 2004 - 12:21 AM This season is looking good – literally -- with an interesting and diverse group. As you may have already guessed, o­ne thing they all seem to have in common is good looks. From the more than o­ne million applicants, we finally get to see the 18 candidates. If you thought that last season’s applicants were A type personalities, than this season’s must be triple A’s. The players are all new but Donald Trump’s hair is the exact same as last season.

The show starts with Donald’s resume and updates o­n Bill Rancic (last season’s winner) and this season’s candidates.Oh, by the way, Bill Rancic is overseeing the construction of a building for Mr. Trump in Chicago (hey, he did ok for himself!). We’re told that the tasks this season will test their intelligence… even more intense and that the stakes will be much higher this season.I can’t wait!

Donald reminds us that this isn’t a game, it’s a 15 week job interview for 18 candidates. He is looking for someone who is smart, someone who is a leader… he’s looking for the Apprentice!

Trump promises that these candidates will be in the big league, working with companies like Levi, Pepsi and Proctor and Gamble.

As you know, the candidates will live in a beautiful suite at the Trump Tower.Each week they will be given a task.Each week someone is fired.

The show starts with the candidates arriving at the Board Room. The Donald enters the Board room and welcomes the candidates noting what a good looking group they are (it’s hard to miss). He takes a moment to indetroduce Carolyn and George (same as last season). He broke up the candidates into two teams men vs women (just like last year). Each week he will assign a project to the teams. New twist: this season, if a candidates is the project manger of the winning team and the project manager of the winning team finds himself or herself the following week in the Board room (meaning o­n the losing team), the project manager can not be fired. (It’s like winning immunity of Survivor).

All the candidates are very pumped up after meeting “The Donald” and go up to their suite. It is a very impressive, luxurious suite.

They take the time to get to know each other and enjoy Dom Perignon and caviar.

Ivana(not Donald’s ex) finds a letter from Mr. Trump and reads it to the women. It invites them to enjoy the champagne (first task already accomplished) and tells each group to permanently give up o­ne member of the team to the other team. o­n the men’s side, Bradford offers to go over to the women’s side. o­n the women’s side, Pamela volunteers to go to the other men’s side.

The guys welcomed Pamela. Next order of business is to pick a corporate name. The guys tossed around names like Empire Corporate but finally decide o­n Mosaic Corporation. Raj didn’t like it AT ALL. (I agree with Raj!)

The women’s team had so many that it would take up 10 pages just to record them but suffice it to say that they eventually voted o­n Apex Corporation as their name (not bad at all).

After commercial (and there seems to be lots of them), we go back to the candidates who are being told (via phone call) that they are to meet Mr. Trump at 8:00 a.m. at Toys “R” Us. Mr. Trump meets them at the Toys “R” Us building and asks about their names. He didn’t seem at all impressed with the name Mosaic. Pamela indicates the team likes the name Mosaic Corporation. She then makes a mistake when Mr. Trump asks her about switching teams by referring to the switch as taking a bullet.

Bradford is smart and indicates he volunteered and doesn’t consider it “taking a bullet”.He’s a guy to watch.

The Challenge: Each team is to develop a brand new toy for an approximately 8 year old boy. Each team is to present the toy to some of the top people at Mattel the following morning. They have access to all Mattel’s resources. As usual George and Carol will accompany the teams. The team that creates the most marketable toy wins. It’s just child’s play for this group of candidates!

Mosaic Corporation: Pamela and the men enter the meeting room at Mattel and she immediate tells them to get their ties off (which they do) and they start talking toys. It was noted by other candidates that Rob seemed to chill out a little too much. They toss around some ideas and eventually decide o­n Crustacean Nation – which is a figurine that can go o­n land or in the water.

Apex Corporation: The women had a little more problem putting themselves into the shoes of an 8 year old boy. They started off a little weak o­n ideas. Suddenly, Bradford just decided he was going to make the decision. He vetoes all of the women’s ideas and announces he is going with his idea. Bradford … um … not much of a team player.

Then commercials …again … and when I say commercials, I mean commercials … and lots of them

Finally, back to the show… Apex Corp gets together with the Mattel design team and they toss the ideas around with the design team. After some discussion, they change their toy. Bradford actually backed off his toy idea (smart move) to something that they all seemed to agree o­n called the Metamorpher. It’s a cool car you can change parts o­n and it’s remote controlled.

So, remembering that each team had o­nly o­ne day to do the toy, it was amazing that the Mattel design team could have the actual toys put together for the next day. The really cool part was that they had a focus group of (approximately) 8 year old boys come in and play with both toys.

First the boys played with Apex Corps car. It was obvious from the start that it caught the attention of all the boys. It was a hit.

Mosaic Corp was next with their Crustacean Nation figure. It was obvious from the start that the kids were not impressed. But what was surprising was what Pamala was saying about the boys in the focus group right in front of Carol and the Mattel executives. Some impression she would be making. o­ne of the candidates, earlier o­n in the show, assessed Pamela as Cruella Da ville. Maybe they weren’t too far off.

More Commercials!

After the commercial finally ended, we had the Apex group sitting in a room that Stacey J. Stacey J was acting strangely, almost paranoid.I’m not sure what was going o­n here… maybe the pressure was getting to her?

Anyway, moving o­n … the Mattel group met with the 18 candidates and Donald Trump. No surprise, Apex won. The winning team had dinner in Donald’s apartment with his fiancé. To the losing team … someone was going to hear “You’re fired”.

Next, we see the Apex Corp team going to “The Donald’s” apartment and having a fabulous meal in his absolutely fabulous apartment. (Yes, it was fabulous)

Back at the hotel suite, the Mosaic team kept busy playing basketball and pointing fingers at each other as they waited to be called to the Board Room.

Finally, we make it to the Board Room (remember this is a 90 minute special) and, Pamela started to make remarks about the fault being the Mattel executives. Carol interrupts her with regard to her incredibly insensitive remarks about the children.

After much discussion o­n whose fault it was that the team failed their first task, Donald told Pamela to pick 2 or 3 people to bring back into the Board Room. She picked Rob and Andy. The rest were sent up to the suite.They were safe.

More commercials.

Donald asked why he should not fire each of them. Pamela said her 12 years experience, building two companies, experience etc. Rob said in the right task, that he is invaluable. All agreed he was underutilized. Andy that his youth worked against him.

Finally, Mr. Trump said that Pamela had a very hard edge. Rob was not a go getter. Andy was told he was really smart but didn’t know if he had enough experience.

Pamela ! She was the project manager..I hope thats her that the Donald is yelling at next week in the previews..she's nasty..her excuse that she didnt have children was pretty lame ..what about a heart?? HUH Pam ..do you have a heart??

I agree with you all, I don't like Pam aka Cruella de ville (what a perfect description of her). She is very hard nosed and gives Omarosa a run for her money. Trump was on Regis and Kelly and he said he had 3 that were Omarosa types this time around. Oh joy |:(. Rob was the right one to fire most definitely. He didn't seem to fit in. I guess he is not aggressive enough. I didn't like Bradford either as he was so mean to assert his control and didn't want to hear anymore ideas fromthe ladies. "Nope, I am going with my idea...I am making an executive decision... ---- what a class A jerk |:( |:( |:( --- I wonder if Colin fromTAR is his best friend. Stacey J is such a space cadet, I think she cracked under pressure 88)) 88)) 88)). Did you guys know that the Apprentice re aired last saturday and ran for 2 hours instead of 1 1/2 hrs. I flipped the channel and it seemed they showed alot more of the boardroom discussion. It was quite interesting. When I flipped it on---all the guys were describing someone that was not likeable.... it turned out it was Bradford. The comments I heard was he is too slick or something but after a minute and a half of talking to him...no one wanted to continue. It kind of makes sense doesn't it. That is why Bradford had no problems going to the women's side.

Did you guys know that the Apprentice re aired last saturday and ran for 2 hours instead of 1 1/2 hrs. I flipped the channel and it seemed they showed alot more of the boardroom discussion. It was quite interesting.

No..I didn't know this ? Is it rerun on NBC? I really didnt pay to much attention to the first episode because it interfered with BB5..as well as it will interfere with S9 this Thursday..If I could watch the rerun on Sat nights..that would be fantastic ..and with extras..cool O0